CHIBA, Japan– The Asian Entrepreneurship Award 2022 event (AEA2022) was held fully online from Wednesday, October 26th to Thursday, October 27th with the participation of 24 tech startups selected from Asian countries and regions. Among the competing participants, Japan’s OUI Inc., which develops the Smart Eye Camera (SEC), a smartphone-based medical device that enables ophthalmic diagnosis anytime, anywhere, and by anyone, was chosen as the winner.
AEA is a global innovation award for emerging Asian entrepreneurs and startups that are utilizing advanced technology to offer solutions to social issues. The AEA2022 brought together 24 selected startups from across Asia providing solutions in the three areas of healthcare, work & lifestyle reform, and sustainability, all of which are global key issues going forward.
Each company was selected on the basis of a wide range of criteria, including innovativeness, the social impact of their products and services, their commercial viability, the potential for collaboration with Japanese companies, the opportunity for business expansion in Japan, and OUI Inc. (Japan) was chosen as the winner.
This year, the Social Business Session in which participants competitively share business ideas for solving social problems was also held at the same time. Among the four participants of the session, SocialTech Japan (Japan), a provider of affordable medical services for achieving universal health coverage, won first prize.
AEA2022 Winners
[Winner]
OUI Inc. (Japan)
Smart Eye Camera (SEC), a smartphone-based medical device that enables ophthalmic diagnosis anytime, anywhere, and by anyone
- Points evaluated by the judges: The comprehensive solution which spans from diagnosis to treatment was highly evaluated.
[Runner-up]
Nervotec (Singapore)
Remote health management mobile platform for contactless measurement and analysis of physiological biomarkers using video analysis technology
- Points evaluated by the judges: The solution using only a smartphone, has the potential for it’s business scalability by collaborating with great partners.
[3rd place]
Liquium (New Zealand)
Clean ammonia production technology for fuels using a new catalyst that reduces capital and operating costs for industrial plants
- Points evaluated by the judges: The social impact made by clean energy can be significant.
[Special Award-AEA Social Business Award]
SocialTech Japan (Japan)
Affordable health services for universal health coverage
[Special Award-Fujitsu Accelerator Award]
Nervotec (Singapore)
- Comments from the judges: “Fujitsu has launched a new business brand called Fujitsu Uvance to address cross-industry issues. Fujitsu Uvance focuses on seven areas, one of which is ‘Healthy Living.’ As a DX company, we felt that Nervotec’s technology could help employees switch between life and work and manage their health to promote individual well-being. We hope to explore the possibility of collaboration by leveraging our mutual synergies.”
[Special Award-IP Bridge Award]
OUI Inc. (Japan)
- Comments from the judges: “This is a very simple device that is easy to take to the field, and we felt it was a feasible solution in addressing the issues of blindness and low vision. We would love to see them achieve their goal of reducing the blindness and low vision population by 50%. To that end, we hope they will utilize our mentoring team to strengthen their IP.”
[Special Award-The Japan Academic Society for Ventures and Entrepreneurs Award]
Liquium (New Zealand)
- Comments from the judges: “The new method proposed by Liquium for mass production of ammonia and CO2-free energy sources can reduce costs by more than 50% and is more promising than the Haber-Bosch process. Although intended for use in the area of heavy industry, if ammonia fuel cells can be developed at the same time, ammonia can also be used for mobility, and the market would expand even further. We have high expectations that a new unicorn will emerge from New Zealand.”
[Special Award-Life Science Award]
OUI Inc. (Japan)
- Comments from the judges: “OUI Inc. has great technology and products, as well as an excellent vision. Furthermore, we see great potential for remote medical care and AI-based surgery. We hope OUI Inc. can help patients all over the world. Congratulations.”
[Special Award-Microsoft Award]
ARAV Inc. (Japan)
A real-time remote control system that can be retrofitted to existing construction equipment and connected via the Internet
- Comments from the judges: “ARAV Inc. is the company that thinks the most about IoT data utilization, and we thought they could make the greatest impact by collaborating with us due to their reproducibility and scalability. We also believe they can collaborate with large Japanese companies in the construction and agriculture industries because of their market impact, ease of implementation, and relevance to IoT business. By doing so, they will be able to achieve social impact and sustainability.”
